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Tag Archives: Battle Report

Day 2 of the Chapel has ended, and only one warband completed the journey through the forest to challenge the Lady Elect, mistress of the gates, and her unholy guardians… Despite overcoming the Wytch-cult, the Imperials fell under of dream-spell of the Albino Woods, and were lured away from the true path by wisps and ghosts. They remain lost in the deep forest, their future is uncertain… (Sadly, Kieran was ill for day 2 and didn’t make it – get well soon dude!)

The more psychically attuned Exodites resisted the lure of the forest spirits, and made it to the grand concourse that leads to the gates of the Chapel itself:

The Lady Elect awaits, while her warband stands ready:

A hard-fought battle ensues, and many noble Exodites fall to the guardians of the gates. Inevitably, the strands of fate align, and Lindethiel faces the Lady Elect in an epic duel:

Lindethiel prevails, and though grievously wounded, she and the surviving Exodites defeat the remaining guardians and deal with a minor daemonic incursion before finally ascending to the gates of the Chapel:

What awaits them inside is a tale for another time…

One last pic – the glowing columns that you can see in the photos above cast various effects throughout the game – some good, some not so good! One of the effects was the manifestation of ghosts, which, of course, Mark had lovingly created. Unfortunately, (or fortunately?), we only got to see Black Tide in-game, (the black one – highly flammable!), but I just had to show you the full supporting cast. I forget the name of the green scribe-ghost on the left, but otherwise we have Lash Banshee, Black Tide, Revenant Boy and Lady Marissa:

Gorgeous.

Phew! What an amazing weekend!! I can’t get my head around how many hours went into this project – all the warbands, (including those absent friends who couldn’t make it), all the terrain, (including the design/printing/molding of the Chapel board & assorted bits and bobs by Mark, and the buildings on the Albino Forest board that were made by Luke & shipped all the way from Australia!), the artwork from Mark and Ahmad Alibrahing (aka The Stygian Thorne), the rules generation & GM plots (Mark), the photographer (sorry, your name escapes me, but nice job!!), and the various friends-of-Mark that popped in and out over the weekend to bring cookies, offer advice, and support and cheer my uncanny ability to roll ones!! Superb effort one and all & lovely to meet you 🙂

You can expect a number of proper write-ups & short stories from me in the coming days & weeks, and I know that Mark will be putting up professional photos and write-ups over on his blog Heresyofus… Keep your eyes open for an exciting announcement over there as well 😉

Finally, I just want to say a huge thank you to Mark for organising this whole thing & allowing me to be a part of it, and to his lovely family for their kind hospitality. You guys are the real stars of the show in my opinion, and I hope to see you all again soon!

Hi guys, just a bit of fun this happy Tuesday – I thought I’d put up a couple of pics of a quick game I ran with my two boys over the weekend. We join Hraxi Jonas, (played by my eldest), and Samwise Shortround, (my youngest), as they set out to hunt down and kill an evil, no good, nasty Werewolf. Enjoy 🙂

The intrepid duo in hiding, checking out a ruined temple…

where crazed cultists enact a dance to call the beast forth, foolishly thinking they can bend the creature to their will!

Something lurking in the forest, drawn by all the chanting…

It looks a tad angry to me!

And then the killing starts – the Werewolf tears through the cultists like a hot werewolf through butter, while Hraxi and Shortround pick off a few crazies themselves before finally confronting the beast on the temple alter….

After a flurry of blows, Hraxi eventually traps the beast with his whip, (thanks to a reroll granted by his lucky hat), which allows Shortround to deliver a crushing punch to the creature’s unmentionables – the beast falls and the heroes win the day! Hurah!

All in all, this was a fun little game with the kids – loose rules, quick action, a bit of mental arithmetic and plenty of narrative to keep them interested 🙂

Hi guys, I’ve had a busy weekend but managed to squeeze in a game of Blood Bowl, wrap up the second of my Ostium Guides for the Chapel project, and advanced the paint-job on a few more trees for the same. No news on my Exodite warband as yet – I need to study some sculpting techniques before I take them any further. I’ll chuck a few words up on the match today, as I haven’t photographed my second Guide yet, and the trees are still WIP. Feel free to skip this if Blood Bowl ain’t your thang, but do pop back later in the week, because I’ll be posting on the Chapel stuff as the week progresses 🙂

So, Blood Bowl! This was an exciting event because it was the first run-out for my Clockwork Orange team – in fact, this was my first game with undead, my first game with a painted side, and I scored my first touchdown! I am very much a novice at this game, having only played once before as an adult, but I feel that I am slowly getting the hang of it. That is a huge testament to my pal Ross and his patient, (and lenient), support! We played out a gruelling but enjoyable 1-1 draw, with Ross and his Orcs receiving the first kick-off and taking six turns to grind downfield for the first touchdown. That didn’t leave me much time to do anything in the first half, (other than crump some heads), so I had to wait for the second half to get my score on the board. I took the kick-off and caged my way down the field, before cutting loose with a speedy Ghoul. I managed my score in five turns, so that gave Ross a chance to come back at me in the last quarter. By this stage, he had a few players off the field, whereas I had been lucky with all my regenerate rolls and had a full team on the pitch. With a nice numerical advantage, I managed to stop his drive close to the half way line, knocked the ball loose and miraculously caught it. I just needed to hand the ball off to one of my speedsters to be in with a chance of pinching a late winning touchdown, and…. I fluffed the hand-off. Ultimately, a 1-1 draw felt about right – a late win would have been harsh on Ross, and the draw meant that the game was fun for both of us.

The highlight of the game for me was getting a blitz and push-back on one Orc that ended up pushing two others and dumping the last one off the pitch! Lowlight was throwing a 3 dice block, not getting a knock-down that I really needed, and then having to burn the re-roll that might have won me the game at the end. *sigh* But hey, that’s Blood Bowl! I think I may be falling in love with the game – it is such an elegant system, and is the quintessential ‘easy to learn and difficult to master’ type of affair… frustrating as hell at times, but just so much fun 🙂

Here’s a couple of pics, including Ross’ lovely Oldhammer Orcs:

Hard-hitting Mummy

LET’S GET READY TO FUMBLE!

Here are some things wot I learned about the game, and about the respective teams:

3: Orcs are really well armoured, and Mighty Blow really isn’t that mighty against AV9…

4: Regenerate is great – I was still at full strength at the end of the match!

5: Figuring out how to best lend assists is the trickiest bit of the game, and…

6: Working through actions in order (most to least favourable) is key.

7: Stay away from the touchline! (Ross…)

8: Look after those re-rolls…

So, there we have it! As I said earlier, you can expect more posts to follow over the week, with the focus very much shifting back to The Chapel. I will also have a short story for you, for those that like such things. Hopefully it will give you a glimpse of my vision for the Albino Forest, and some of the macabre practices that happen in its depths…

Happy Thursday folks –I’m a bit late getting this out, (life has been on overdrive lately!), but last Wednesday I had a cracking little game of Rogue Trader with my Lead-Brother Ross. The game pitted elements of his growing Inquisitorial warband against my new Rogue Trader, who had brought along some hired thugs. The mission was a ‘simple’ archeotech retrieval job, but it all got messy when a nest of Frumious Bandersnatch got disturbed in the hunt… Here’s a short attempt to relay the tale in a narrative stylee, followed by a couple of pics. (Yes… I said stylee… deal with it 😉

Hope you enjoy!

Arturo carefully scanned the area ahead. He could see the shaft entrance, and knew that this was the spot where the xenotech was allegedly hidden. He had been hired to retrieve an alien artifact, and paid a very generous retaining fee by a collector that he had met on an outer-rim archaeological site. Trouble was that he knew that he was not the only interested party… He had heard rumours of an Inquisitor poking around for information about the treasure, and he doubted that he had been able to buy the silence of the hive gang who had provided him with his own information. Arturo didn’t really know what the protocol was when dealing with the other Imperial agencies, but as far as he was concerned, his Rogue Trader warrant gave him complete authority out here in the galactic fringe world of Jarman’s Folly… No doubt, the Inquisitor felt the same, and it always paid to be cautious. With that thought in mind, he ordered a small group of gangers forward towards the shaft. They were a rabble that he had been able to hire as guides for a few credits, and the three of them were eminently disposable. Arturo had also hired a more seasoned fighter – a bounty hunter who went under the name ‘8-Ball’… He wore a ridiculous environmental suit, but he did come highly recommended as a guy who ‘got shit done’… Arturo used the comm link to instruct him to climb to a gantry and get a better view of the shaft entrance.

The comm clicked as soon as the bounty hunter reached his position “boss, multiple parties closing in from the east… they’re tooled up, unfriendly lookin’, and they’re heading for the shaft… I have a shot boss, what’s your call?” Arturo didn’t hesitate. “Take the shot 8-Ball” he replied, and the hum of gravetic drives became audible as the mercenary fired up his shuriken catapult. At the same time, Arturo stepped from behind a rusted storage tank, servos whining as his ancient power armour responded to his movements. He threw a blind grenade towards an ancient plascrete column that stood opposite the shaft entrance, and watched as the three gangers gratefully took cover within the cloud. A burst of fire rang out from the east, and he turned in time to see 8-Ball drop to the ground, his power field flashing as it overloaded under the weight of fire. “Shit…” Arturo muttered to himself – he had lost the element of surprise, and with 8-Ball out of action, he was effectively blind. He could hear the unmistakable sound of hand to hand fighting coming from the shaft entrance, but couldn’t see much through the smoke screen that his blind grenade had created. The fighting didn’t sound pleasant – a high pitched chittering merged discordantly with a deep, animalistic bellow… The young Rogue Trader had a hunch that this situation was likely to get close and personal – he sent a mental instruction to his armour, and a small servo arm rotated at the back of the suit, presenting his power sword’s grip over his right shoulder. Reaching back, he grasped the weapon, and thumbed the activation rune as he swung the blade through a few practice arcs. The power sword was a beautiful piece of technology – perfectly balanced and keen, it was a relic that had been handed down through the family for generations. More importantly, it was the last gift his father had given him before he left his homeworld for a life among the stars, and the historical weight of the heirloom immediately strengthened his resolve. Arturo began to stride forward, his armoured tread crunching through the detritus of the underhive as he marched purposefully towards the shaft entrance.

Ahead, the smoke screen began to disperse, and he saw a clutch of insectoid creatures burst from the shaft entrance to leap at the gangers who were cowering in the thinning cloud surrounding the column. One of the thugs was torn apart in a spray of blood as two of the creatures ripped into him. Arturo didn’t even break his stride as he stepped over the corps and butchered the pair with powerful sweeps of his blade. Shots rang out again as the smoke continued to clear, and he realised that he had a group of enemy gunmen ahead, and another pair on a gantry to his right. He swung his shuriken catapult around and fired left-handed on the group to the on the gantry, watching with satisfaction as a malformed gunman crumpled to the ground. Arturo stepped back and tried to put the column between himself and the group to the east, while he swung his blade at the remaining creatures. Another one fell to his sword, but a second ganger had also fallen. Shots hammered into the melee as the remaining gunmen fired indiscriminately into the whirling combat, and one shot managed to find a weak point in his armour. He felt a sharp burning pain in his thigh before the suit’s automatic analgesic dispensers could kick in. The last ganger fell, but the creature that was tearing into him was distracted enough to allow Arturo to dispatch it with a clean decapitating sweep of his sword.

A brief lull allowed the young Rogue Trader to take stock of his situation. He still had a pair of gunmen to contend with to the east, and a lone assailant on the gantry to the south. He also saw a giant brute of a mutant engaged in melee with a pair of the insectoid creatures near to the shaft entrance – the mutant was bleeding from a dozen minor wounds, while the crumpled bodies of several other insectoids littered the ground, giving evidence of the brutality of the struggle. Amidst all of the chaos, Arturo’s attention was drawn to a figure emerging from the shaft entrance itself. Clad in archaic power armour and carrying a well maintained Bolter, the figure exuded confidence and authority. The armour was unadorned and portrayed an understated efficiency, while the open helmet reviled a gaunt and haughty face – a single bionic eye glowing balefully in the gloom. This must be the Inquisitor that Arturo had heard about, and in his left hand he held a glowing cube that could only be the xenotech that the Rogue Trader sought.

Arturo’s attention was drawn back to the east as further shots rang out – razor-sharp flakes of plascrete flew off the column as munitions hammered all around his position. He snapped his shuriken catapult to the mag strip on his left thigh, and gritted his teeth as he drew his archaic plasma pistol. “Time to even the odds” he growled to himself as he stepped into the open. The pistol kicked and howled in fury as balls of white-hot plasma spewed out and incinerated the gunmen to his front. A bolt round glanced off his left shoulder as the Inquisitor snapped off a shot, while laser fire stabbed down from the gantry to his right. Arturo didn’t hesitate – he turned and charged at the Inquisitor, sword held low. The Inquisitor was hopelessly outmatched – he was surprisingly agile in his armour and avoided many of Arturo’s blows, but he was poorly equipped for hand to hand combat. He fended Arturo off as best he could with knife and fist, but the reach of his sword was telling and Arturo slowly drove the Inquisitor back. Eventually the Rogue Trader forced an opening, and sliced his blade across the chest plate of the unknown Inquisitor. The field harmonics of the blade allowed it to slice through ceramite plate, cut deep into the cabling and hydraulics beneath, and on into flesh. The Inquisitor fell, blood and oil seeping from his torn armour, his suit whining in protest as it lost power. Arturo was about to make sure the man was dead, when a huge weight barrelled into him. The giant mutant had managed to kill the last of the insectoid creatures that had been swarming it, and was now determinedly trying to crush Arturo in a bear hug. Arturo sighed inwardly, and drove an elbow into the beast’s abdomen, breaking its grip and creating enough space for Arturo to swing his blade. He launched a flurry of blows, driving the mutant back further before calmly snapping off a shot with his plasma pistol and dropping the creature in its tracks. Arturo turned back towards where the Inquisitor had fallen, and saw the lone gunman from the gantry had left his perch, and was stooped over the prone form of the Inquisitor as he attempted to prise the gem from his grip. The gunman barely had time to glance up before Arturo had closed the gap and dispatched him a crushing kick to the head.

Silence fell over the area, and Arturo gazed around at the devastation. Piles of bodies were scattered around the small clearing, some contorted in death, some twitching and moaning where they lay, and others still burning where they had been hit with plasma. He glanced up to where 8-Ball had fallen and was unsurprised to see that the body was no longer there – Arturo didn’t know whether the bounty hunter had survived and escaped, or whether he had simply crawled off somewhere quiet to die… He didn’t much care either way, but he saw that the gangers that he had hired were clearly very dead indeed. He turned to look down at the Inquisitor at his feet. The old man was still alive – locked motionless in his now deactivated suit, but he was glaring at Arturo – his one organic eye blazing with rage. “Oh, you’re for it now… you’re so fragged, and you don’t even know it. Do you know who I am? What I am? I’m Inquisitor Emeric… I’m on the Emperor’s holy business! Throne’s sake, you just messed with the wrong guy…” he gasped, blood bubbling from his lips. Arturo gazed down… “Tell me, honoured Inquisitor… What is it that you want with this?” Arturo asked as he stowed his pistol and bent down to remove xenotech cube from the Inquisitor’s frozen grip. “I’ll tell you nothing, you whoreson whelp!” the Inquisitor spat. Arturo straightened, and looked at the gem closely. The cube appeared to be made of a gently glowing green crystal, the faces etched with unfamiliar symbols. There was something hypnotic about the lambent green glow, and Arturo had to forcibly drag his attention back to the present. He deactivated his power sword, and placed the tip of the now inert blade below the Inquisitors good eye… “Listen old boy, I came a long way for this gem – I have a sanctioned Imperial warrant to trade in this sector, and it is mine by right… You don’t have any jurisdiction over me, and the way I see it? Well… I can do whatever I wish with you… Now, be a good gent, and tell me why the gem is important to you before I do something you’ll regret.” The glossy black faceplate of the Rogue Trader’s helmet gazed impassively down, reflecting the contorted features of the Inquisitor. The two figures remained frozen for a moment before the distant wail of sirens cut through the underhive gloom.

Arturo straightened – he didn’t want to get involved with the local Arbites if he could help it – despite his assertions, he still wasn’t entirely sure where he stood… true, his Trader warrant granted him complete autonomy and the authority to do as he wished out here in the fringes of Imperial space, but then the Inquisition could probably boast a similar claim. Ultimately, questions of who was right and who was wrong may end up in a bureaucratic quagmire, and he had no intention of hanging around to wait for that kind of process to play out. Arturo briefly considered killing this ‘Emeric’ where he lay, but came to the conclusion that murdering an Inquisitor in cold blood might be a singularly bad idea. He looked down at the Inquisitor, “Well, old chap… I’d love to stop and chat, but that sounds like my cue to leave. I guess it’s your lucky day!” With a quick flick of his blade he left a shallow cut below the Inquisitors eye as he turned and began tramping back towards the space port. He slung his sword over his shoulder, and the suit’s retaining arm gripped the hilt before stowing the blade at the small of Arturo’s back. The Inquisitor screamed out in rage “You should’ve killed me boy! You should’ve finished it! I’ll find you… I’ll find you! You’ll beg me to kill you before the end! You hear me? You’re a dead man!”

Arturo paid him no mind as he strode into the gloom of the underhive, clutching his prize, and wondering what the Inquisition might want with the gem… The Inquisition didn’t generally waste their time on trivial things, so the cube was clearly more than a mere bauble. Arturo suspected that it was far more valuable than the retaining fee he had been paid, and he wasn’t at all certain that he wanted to hand it over to the collector who had hired him. Instead, Arturo was beginning to consider where he might find a xenotech expert who would be able to interpret the symbols for him – maybe if he could learn more about the cube then he could negotiate a better price for it… He had plenty to think about, but the important thing right now was to get to his ship and put some distance between himself and Jarman’s Folly… and Inquisitor Emeric of course.

I hope you enjoyed that read folks – Ross and I certainly had good fun playing the game! It definitely sets the scene for future encounters between these two adversaries:-)

Anyhow, here are some photos:

Arturo and ganger guides on the approach

…while 8-Ball moves to take the high ground

The Frumious Bandersnatch infested shaft entrance

Emeric & co approach the shaft – giant mutant to the fore

Inquisitorial henchmen on the ground

More henchmen poised to climb on to the gantry

The Minotaur gets mobbed by one bunch of bugs

And the gangers get mobbed by another

Arturo wades in and kicks bug ass, but is too late to save the gangers

Arturo guns down the two henchmen to his front

Inquisitor Emeric appears from the shaft, clutching the xenotech

Arturo charges the Inquisitor

Emeric is down, but the Minotaur finally kills the last bug and joins the fight

Arturo drops the beast with plasma fire

Just in time to catch the sneaky Ventolin trying to snatch the xenotech

Smack-down!

Arturo is the last man standing – time to grab the loot and split before the rozzers turn up!

Happy Tuesday folks, I have ‘sumpthing’ a bit different for you today – a write-up of my first game of Rogue Trader since 1989! This is something I’ve been looking forward to revisiting since painting up some of the original RT Space Pirates… partly because of nostalgia, but also looking for a different way to play 40k that isn’t a pitched battle between army lists. My pal Ross kindly volunteered to participate, and came over with a merry band of chaos cultists to pit against my pirates. We threw some terrain down and got stuck in! It went thusly:

Scenario:

We rolled up the scenario that involved poisoning a water supply, so we took some artistic license and decided that the cultists were attempting to sabotage ‘the sump’, (an underhive chemical processing plant), with the aim of causing a leak and polluting the local water supply… Because Chaos and ting…

My merry band of pirates had been hired to protect the processing plant – just filling time with a bit of protection work while their ship is undergoing repairs. They certainly weren’t expecting trouble…

I started out with four pirates guarding the sump, with six more starting off the board. The cultists attacked in three groups of four.

Early game:

The cultists appeared from the gloom of the underhive and rushed towards the sump, hugging cover as they came. There was no fire from the mob, as they were mostly armed with pistols, but the pirates on the sump started to take pot shots, managing to drop a couple of cultists as they closed. Meanwhile, the rest of the pirates were alerted by the shooting and rushed to support their crewmates. The race was on – could the reinforcements get there before the cultists could overrun the facility!

Mid game:

The shooting intensified as the cultists drew closer. It took the cult leader a few turns to figure out how to make his shotgun work, but once he did he and his squad started to whittle down the defenders on the sump tower. More cultists took advantage of the covering fire and rushed towards the sump access ramp, where they gunned down another defender – the sump was left in the hands of a lone pirate champion!

Meanwhile, the rest of the pirates had almost reached the sump. The pirate captain directed his Ogryn bodyguard and another squad mate to fire on the cultists closest to the ramp. Two of the screaming fanatics went down, but the captain had a nasty surprise when a warp entity tore itself into reality via the corpse of the cultist champion… a slavering red Daemon promptly charged the captain! A flurry of blows was exchanged, and the Daemon was forced back, (helped by the captain’s Ogryn bodyguard piling in!). Meanwhile the final squad of cultists rounded a corner and took an opportunistic shot at the group, one of them setting the Ogryn alight with a flamer. The final squad of pirates tried to thin out the cultists milling around the sump with weapon fire, but with little effect – no doubt they were distracted by the sight of a daemon bursting from a dead body, and the enraged bellows of a burning Ogryn.

The remaining cultist from the squad that spawned the daemon made his way up the ramp. The mutant beastman was almost there – a lone defender stood between him and his goal. The pirate champion heroically charged the abhuman but failed to wound the creature. The beastman lined up a thunderous headbutt and dropped the pirate – the way was clear! The creature snorted in triumph as he reached his objective… and then looked in puzzlement at the mechanism he was supposed to be sabotaging – intelligence test failed! Meanwhile, the captain and his human squadmate managed to beat out the flames on the burning Ogryn, and then they finished off the Daemon as it bounded back into combat. The other pirates tried their best to pick off another pair of cultists as they ran up the ramp to help the intellectually challenged beastman, but they couldn’t hit a barn door.

End game:

The death of the Daemon meant that the captain and his unit were now free to act, and 40 stone of angry smouldering Ogryn thundered up the ramp and pounded the two cultists into the ground, before glaring up at the beastman who was still trying to figure out how to sabotage the mechanism.

The remaining pirates piled in to the cultists milling around the base of the sump, but to little effect. It all came down to the chaos beastman… he did his bestest & hardest thinking, and in a flash of inspiration, he thunked out how to foul up the mechanism and dump thousands of litres of toxic sludge into the drains. Job done, he calmly turned to confront the Ogryn who was charging up the ramp, looking for some payback. He snapped off a shot, and was delighted to see the Ogryn drop to the floor with a puzzled look on its scorched face.

The pirate captain decided that enough was enough – outnumbered and outgunned, he ordered his remaining crewmates to ‘tactically withdraw’. The cultists had doggedly achieved their aim despite losing two thirds of their number in the process.

Impressions:

Well, that was a whole load of fun! The Rogue Trader rules are a little clunky at times, (working out all the modifiers for different blokes & weapons), and the book is a bit disorganised, but that only served to add to the creativity and fun. There were several points that were open to interpretation, so we just rolled for stuff or made things up on the spot. Without realising it, we were both playing to have fun and tell a story rather than kill stuff and win… a very pleasant change from modern 40k.

My favourite moments were the cinematic ones – the Warp Entity (Daemon) appearing and mindlessly launching itself into combat with the nearest target was one… that and the heroic actions of the beastman in completing the mission and dropping the Ogryn in a single turn – priceless 🙂

Another thing I really enjoyed was the small model count – this is great, as it means that the game is easy to get into – it doesn’t need to cost much, is quick to paint, and is much more character driven. Ross and I both went with old lead miniatures, but you could easily do this with modern plastics at a much lower price.

All in all, I can strongly recommend giving Rogue Trader a whirl. It seems to sit nicely between modern 40k and Necromunda, with a pinch of Inquisitor thrown in for good measure. I’m looking forward to cracking out a few more period miniatures and having another bash 🙂

Hello chaps, I thought I’d put a quick post out – I had my first game of Dystopian Legions last night, and really enjoyed! For those that don’t know, Dystopian Legions is a steampunk skirmish game, set in an alternate timeline around the 1870’s. It’s 32mm truescale, and has some lovely models. We have the major empires of the time represented, and it looks like each is nuanced to favour a particular style of play. My pal Matt was good enough to lend me half of his Kingdom of Britannia force, and we had a good scrap with the aim of testing the rules and having a laugh. I should point out that Matt only has one or two games under his belt, so we were referring to the rules a lot 🙂